My hubby drew my attention to Mark Bittman's NY Times column this past week, The Minimalist, and asked sweetly, "Will you make this, please?" Well, I'm nothing if not the PERFECT partner, always accommodating my dear husband's needs, wishes, desires, 100% of the time, and vise versa....er, um, some of the time...okay, occasionally? Well, we DO TRY!
I found myself at the grocery store, (where I find myself oooooooooh 5 days a week), deciding what to make for dinner, and I remembered Jere's request, pulled it up on the 'ole smart phone, and gave it a whirl. Thoughtful, right? I amaze myself.
Well, thank you Jere Burns and Mark Bittman! This salad is easy, refreshing, and, when the ingredients are in season like they are now, finger-lickin' good. (Proven to me by the nice Whole Foods employee who cut open the watermelon for me to taste, talk about service!) Luckily, my 3 year old didn't like it, so Daddy and I fought over Henry's plate, after promptly devouring the whole bowl ourselves. It says it serves four, I guess that's true if you're not Jere or Leslie Burns, because that bowl was E-M-P-T-Y!
You may question these ingredients together, but as Mark Bittman writes, "It turns out watermelon and tomato make spectacular platefellows, and they're even better with a few assertive accompaniments." He sure said somethin' there!
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| Doesn't that cool right down just lookin' at it?! |
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups seedless watermelon, in 1 inch cubes or balls (Reserve some of the watermelon juice)
1 1/2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (but I would add this slowly, as I found I could've done with a little less blue cheese) You can use a Stilton, Gorgonzola, Roquefort or Maytag blue cheese
1/2 cup minced scallions
salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 to 2 pinches cayenne pepper
1/2 cup parsley or cilantro, roughly chopped (I went with cilantro)
Whisk together 2 tablespoons of watermelon juice, olive oil, vinegar, and cayenne pepper, then add the salad ingredients to a large bowl, adding salt to taste, and garnishing with parsley or cilantro. Do NOT refrigerate and serve within 30 minutes.
Trust me, your family, company, bbq neighbors, general passers-by, will tell you, "This salad is right on time!"
Who knew?
ReplyDeleteI like me that Mark Bittman - thanks for suggesting!
My hubby often eats watermelon & feta together which is a classic Middle Eastern combo. So when I saw a watermelon/tomato/feta salad recipe (which is very similiar to the one you posted) I tried it & it has been a hit in our house: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Watermelon-Tomato-and-Mint-Salad-243070
ReplyDeleteI serve it with pita bread to soak up all the juice at the bottom of the salad. Now I'll have to try your blue cheese version!